Hello Savvy Saver!

When taking a hard look at savings, it’s easy to gloss over subscription payments and go right to those variable “discretionary” line items such as groceries and entertainment.  Many times, people never even consider their TV/Cable/Satellite setup as optional.  Why?  They aren’t aware of cheaper (a lot of times, free) alternatives.

The average monthly hit your bottom line takes with cable/satellite ranges anywhere from $60 to $120 per month.  Imagine if you could free that cash up to do something more productive (and no, I’m not talking about what you might be doing differently with your time — more on that later)?  At $90 per month you’re set to save $1,080 per year!  That’s nothing to sneeze at!

Assessing Your Current Viewing Habits

This type of change (even the thought of this change) can strike fear into the TV-Loving Hearts of many.  Relax.  I want to help you assess your viewing habits and see if this move is right for you.

How many channels are you currently paying for?  And how many of those channels have you watched for more than a few minutes over the past week?  Channel surfing doesn’t count.  I’m looking for intentional watching, not stumbling onto something you find mildly interesting only because you’re bored out of your mind and wanting to decompress.

The average satellite subscriber has access to who knows how many channels.  Most people I asked told me they watch about ten channels.  Are you in the same boat?  So are you basically purchasing the other hundred-some-odd channels each month and never watching them?

I do this all the time!  I go grocery shopping and then throw out 90% of what I just bought (this is the same thing, right?)

What we’re basically wanting to do is take cable and go a la carte.  (Ramit, from IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com wrote a great piece on a la carte implementation in other aspects of spending as well — worth the read).

However, the great news is that most of the shows from major networks are available without any charge whatsoever.  So I’m not even suggesting you pay per episode.  I’m talking about you not paying anything at all.

The Beauty of Streaming (Like TiVo but free)

Julie and I have been enjoying streaming video for quite some time — ever since we became fans of Lost.  The options available to you will bring you almost every major network show (and then some):

1. Hulu.com (my personal favorite, containing both NBC and FOX content with old shows like The Cosby Show and News Radio)
2. ABC.com
3. CBS.com

But what about those channels everyone always mentions to justify a cable subscription in the first place (Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, and PBS)?  You can stream a ton of great shows from those channels if you just apend a .com (.org for PBS) to the end of each them and head over there with your internet browser.

Actually, today I’ve been running with some fabulous new software called Boxee.  It’s in alpha, so it’s free, and it is fantastic.  It gives you a nice Mac-like Front Row experience (or Windows Media Player experience) but brings together a whole slew of media sources right in one place (ABC.com, Hulu, YouTube, MTV, CNN..the list goes on and on).  Apple die-hards with an Apple TV will be happy to note that you can even install the Boxee software on Apple TV and stream the content right through there.  It’s not a hack — it’s simply a software install.

What are the downsides to streaming?  You usually have to wait an entire twenty-four hours to watch the show!  (I say that with lots of sarcasm slathered on there).

What About for the Die-Hard Sports Fan?  You actually don’t have the brightest outlook.  I know ESPN360.com is available, but they don’t have everything.

Free HDTV Over the Air

One thing to consider if you find that you’re viewing mostly the major television networks anyway — you could purchase a relatively inexpensive HD antenna and grab those channels for free.  We don’t watch enough TV to justify an HD antenna, but I dug up some great info anyway if you’re interested.

First, find out if your programs are broadcast over the air in HD at TitanTV.com.  Second, check AntennaWeb.org, which will tell you how/where to point your HD antenna so you maximize its reception.  A great tutorial I found regarding HDTV over the air should be a solid resource as well. 

What About for Movies?

A Netflix Subscription will give you as many movies as you could possibly watch through the mail or via on demand download.  Consider (if they’re available) using Redbox, which sports coupon codes you can use to rent the movie for free (just don’t return it five days late, like we did with a movie that we never even watched).

Now granted, a service like Netflix isn’t free, but at $9 per month it’s quite a bit cheaper than what you’re paying for cable/satellite.  From what I gathered, a $9 per month subscription gets you one movie through the mail and as many streaming movies as you can handle.

Hidden Savings You May Not Have Considered

The important aspect in this is really to evaluate your viewing habits.  Are you spending a lot of time simply browsing channels because you’re bored or are looking for some type of escape?  Or are you watching TV because you are interested in that one show you’ve been following?

The hidden savings in all of this may very well be much more valuable than the savings you create through cancelling your cable subscription:  your time.

You’ll find quite a bit of time recovered with the following:

1. An hour-long streaming TV show through Hulu.com has (I believe) two minutes of commercials.  Were you to watch that during the normal broadcast you’d be dealing with 17 minutes of commercials.  If you TiVo it and skip through commercials, you’re still having to pay for the TiVo subscription.  I’ll watch two minutes of commercials to skip that subscription.
2. A significant amount of time people spend watching TV is with channel surfing or watching a show that they really don’t care to see, but their curiosity is piqued just enough to get them to stick around (this happened to me with The Abyss several years ago — an episode in my life that drove me to sell our TV and take Julie out for Chinese food on the money we made from it — it was an old TV and we’ve never looked back).

When you stream your TV shows via the free services mentioned above, or only purchase your media a la carte on demand, you’re only watching what you really want to watch.

The sky’s the limit with your time savings:  read a book, exercise, master a skill, learn a new language…

In Conclusion

I’m not saying you need to go too extreme he
re, but this may be something you want to consider.  We rent movies on demand via iTunes or Amazon (or through Redbox) and watch all of our favorite shows through Hulu or ABC.com.  We don’t miss cable in the slightest!